A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 83 



cape a frost. It is about as broad as it is long ; but still, if a 

 late frost does come, the mulching will do harm. 



There is a way out of this difficulty. A mulch of long 

 straw or marsh hay can be taken off in the spring, and the sur- 

 face kept stirred with a hoe or rake, about half an inch deep, 

 wherever any of the gound is uncovered by vines, and then cut 

 straw or cut hay couM be put back just before the fruit begins 

 to ripen. But it can not be done as perfectly as when put on in 

 the fall, and the plants grow up through it. Some of our best 

 growers do this way. Mr. P. M. Augur does, except that he 

 does not cut the mulch that is returned. Mr. J. M. Smith takes 

 off the mulch (marsh hay) and hoes the surface that is expos- 

 ed, and puts no mulch back. He says the berries do not get 

 very sandy on his soil. 



There is another point in this connection that is worth 

 thinking of. You know that a light shower would do a great 

 deal of good in Mr. Smith's well-hoed strawberry-patch. He 

 says himself that he has been astonished to see the effect of a 

 light shower that would hardly lay the dust in the street for 

 more than two hours. The change was almost marvelous ; 

 while upon similar soils not cared for, the suffering plants 

 would scarcely be affected at all. On a patch where a straw 

 mulch is left on all the season, will the light showers do as 

 much good as on a field where the earth mulch is used and the 

 soil is all mellow, and exposed directly to the precious drops 

 from the clouds ? Who can tell us? I have time and again 

 noticed the same thing in the potato field. Where a man has 

 done his best, and the surface is all fine and mellow, a light 

 shower will do so much good that one can not fail to notice it 

 with the eye, while it will have no noticeable influence where 

 the soil is hard and neglected. Between bare surface, mellow, 

 and the same hard and unbroken, in the strawberry-field, there 

 can be no question as to which is the better ; but between bare 

 surface, mellow (the earth mulch), and the same surface cov- 

 ered with a straw mulch, I should not dare to decide positively. 



